Throughout the Old
Testament Christ 53 is regarded as the
coming One. In the Old covenant the gospel is coming into being. “The Old
Testament is the dusk and dawn of morning. The dawn belongs to the sun. Thus
the Old Testament belongs to Christ.” “The Old Testament tells what Christ is, the New Testament tells
who He is, and in such a way that it
becomes manifest that he alone knows ‘Jesus’ who recognizes Him as the
‘Christ,’ and he alone knows who the ‘Christ’ is who knows that He is ‘Jesus.’
So do the two Testaments correspond to the two chief names of the Redeemer; the
Old to the name of His vocation, Christ, the New to His personal name, Jesus;
but both are inspired by one Spirit and explain each other.”
Footnote
53: Exactly the same verbal form Christos was used in the third century before Christ’s birth in the
Bible of the exiled Jews in
Therefore the
portrait of the Messiah in Old Testament prophecy is all-embracing. It depicts:
[1] The Person of the Messiah:
His humanity as to family, place, and time.
His
divinity (this in veiled form—see p. 19).
[2] The Work of the Messiah:
His coming in lowliness.
His coming in glory.
Before He became man
Christ is already the centre of the history of salvation.
His anticipatory presentation
in the Old Testament is at the same time a self-presentation,
for the “Spirit of Christ” was in the prophets (I Pet. 1:11). The pre-Christian
history of revelation is a “history of Christ” before He came.
(1) His humanity. Conscious
of the goal, advancing in the course of centuries, Old Testament prophecy
described the humanity of the Redeemer in ever narrowing and concentrating
circles of light, like a pyramid tapering upwards. First of all
(a) The family. The world’s
Redeemer descends
from mankind, is “the woman’s
seed” (Gen. 3:15)—
thus was it spoken at the time of Adam and Eve: about 4300 B.C.;
from all the races of mankind, out of Shem’s
family (Gen. 9:26)—
thus Noah prophesied: about 2300 B.C.;
from among all Shemites, out of the seed
of Abraham (Gen.12:1-3)—
thus said God Himself: about 1900 B.C.;
from among all the nations descended from Abraham, out of
as is proved by the transmission of the covenant to Isaac and Jacob:
about 1850 B.C., see Gen. 26:3,4; 28:13,14;
from among all Israelites, out of the royal tribe of
as was said a out 1800 B.C.: Gen. 49:10, comp. I Chron. 5:2; Heb.7:14.
Actually Reuben had the right of the firstborn. Nevertheless, the
Messiah is not “Lion out of the tribe of Reuben.” For, on account of sin (as
recorded in Gen. 35:22), Reuben was deprived of his firstborn rights and the
right concerning the Messiah (I Chron. 5:1; Gen. 49:3,4).
The next following brothers, Simeon and Levi, were also excluded (Gen. 49:5-7)
on account of their bloody deed at Shechem (Gen. 34:25).
Thereupon Reuben’s rights as the firstborn were divided as follows:
The
double share of the material inheritance (Deut. 21:15-17) went to Joseph (in
Ephraim and Manasseh; I Chron. 5:1,2);
The
priestly dignity (see Exod. 13:2,15), having regard to
Exod. 32:26-28, went to Levi (Num. 3:12,45; 8:17,18) and
The
ruler’s dignity (see Gen. 43:33; 48:14,18,19) went to
Judah, Jacob’s fourth son (I Chron. 5:2). Therefore is the Messiah the “Lion
out of the tribe of
After this the particularizing of the promise stopped for some
centuries. Moses, indeed, about 1500 B.C., writes his fivefold work, and
prophesies of the coming of a Prophet
like to himself (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22;7:37); and, above all, the Tabernacle
and the sacrifices are types of Christ as the Priest (esp. Exod. 25-31; Lev. 1-7; 16; John 5:46); but he carried
the promise no further towards its summit.
The heathen seer, Balaam, Moses’ contemporary, likewise confined his
prophecy of the coming King entirely
within the general framework of Israel: “I see him, but not just now; behold
him, but not near at hand; there rises a star out of Jacob and a sceptre out of
Israel exalts itself” (Num. 24:17).
It is not before Nathan, the prophet of David’s time (about 1050 and
thus 700 years later) that the specializing of the prophecy is resumed. In the
meantime the
The divine-human Messiah king was to come out of
But after the kingdom had come and, if not at first willed by God, yet
in fact instituted by Himself, the overruling by God of men’s shortcomings
consisted in this, that God now chose for the ancestor of the Messiah not a
private individual but rather a believing wearer of the crown.
This is the meaning in the plan of salvation of the mission of Nathan
(I Chron. 17:3-14). Through the prophecy of Nathan to David, the Messianic
promises within the royal tribe of
Footnote 54: The name “David” occurs about 980 times in the Old Testament and about 50 times in the New Testament, that is over 1,000 times in all. The name “Jesus occurs almost 1,000 times.
The furthering specializing of the promise then continues right through
David’s royal family. Out of David’s numerous sons (II Sam.5:13,14) two especially became transmitters of the Messianic
blessing, Solomon and Nathan, both sons of Bathsheba (I Chron. 3:5). From
Solomon was descended Joseph, the legal
“father” of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 1:6,16); from
Nathan, the virgin Mary, His actual
mother (Luke 3:23,31). Taken strictly Christ thus descends not from the chief
royal line of Solomon, but from the non-reigning
collateral line of Nathan. The one is the legal, the other the organic, the organic has more significance than the legal.
Matthew gives the ancestral tree of Joseph, Luke that of Mary, or, to
be more accurate, of her father Eli (Luke 3:23), the father-in-law of Joseph
(hence ver.23; comp. Neh. 7:63). The Talmud also calls Mary a daughter of Eli.
Thus explain Luther, Bengel, Lange Delitzsch, and many others.
Thus, by gradual diffusion of the light, prophecy had advanced from the
general to the particular, from the office to the office-bearer, from the
material to the personal, as it were from “Christ” to “Jesus”. The Old
Testament had been a “drawing by the Father to the Son”, even as the New
Testament is a “drawing by the Son to the Father” (I Cor. 15:28).
Later, the earthly kingdom went to ruin. With Zedekiah the family of
David lost its crown (II Chron. 36:11-20). But nevertheless the kingdom and the
power and the glory continued with David (Isa. 55:3), and in the End time
Christ, even as “David” will shepherd His people and the nations (Ezek.
37:24,25; Hos. 3:5; Isa. 11:1-10; Jer. 23:5). “My servant David shall be their
prince for ever” (Ezek. 37:25, comp. Rev. 22:16). Thus man attained what he had desired (the earthly kingdom):
but nevertheless at last God maintained His
right (the heavenly kingdom).
(b) The place. With the
prophecy of Nathan to David the question as to the family of the Messiah had
been conclusively answered (about 1050 B.C.). But the question as to the place
and time was not yet clarified. Therefore two further leading prophecies were
added, these being, after 300 years (about 725), Micah’s prophecy as to the
place (5:2; comp. 1:1), and after 500 years (about 536), Daniel’s prophecy as
to the time (Dan.
9:24-27; comp.1).
Although founded by a descendant of the heroic Caleb (I Chron.
2:50,51), and in the times of the Judges for seven years the seat of Ibzan the
judge (Judges 12:8-10), in the centuries before David Bethlehem-Ephratah (House
of Bread, the fruitful) enters the history of Israel only with a very
inglorious reputation, connected indeed with death and mourning (Gen. 35:19,20)
idolatry (Judges 17:7ff), immorality, fratricidal strife (Judges 19-21) and
famine (Ruth 1:1). 55 But it was from
this very city that God, who always condescends to the lowly, chose from
Himself the ancestor of the Messiah; and thus Bethlehem Ephratah, as David’s
city, became the place in which ‘Christ the Lord’ should be born (Mic. 5:2;
Luke 2:11).
Footnote 55: Though the connexion is only indirect, the
Levite Jonathan, the household priest of the idolatrous Micah, had come to him
from
But the prophecy became yet more precise. Nearly two hundred years
after Micah had foretold the place (about 725) Daniel (about 536) announced
(c) The Time. This took
place in the prophecy of the “seventy year-weeks,” or, more exactly, the
sixty-nine year-weeks before the advent of the seventieth. With this the prophecy reached its culminating point and at the same time
its conclusion.
“Therefore know now and mark: From the time that there goes out a
command that Jerusalem shall again be built unto the anointed one, the prince,
are seven weeks and sixty two weeks; so will the streets and walls be built
again, though in a troubled time; and after the sixty two weeks the Anointed
One will be rooted out and be no more” (Dan. 9:25,26).
56
Footnote 56: That by this “anointed one” Christ is meant (and not perhaps Cyrus, or, according to II Macc. 4:34, the high priest Onias, murdered in B.C. 172) was the interpretation of the ancient church and of such later expositors as Hengstenberg, Auberlen, and Keil.
The seventy weeks (sevens) are each seven years. An Israelite like
Daniel would grasp this very easily, since under the Mosaic law
every seventh year was reckoned a sabbath year (Lev. 25:4). Thus the 7x62=69
year-weeks “unto the anointed one (the Messiah) the prince” embrace 483 years.
Their beginning is the issue of the command to rebuild
Their activity set in with the decree of the Persian king, Artaxerxes I
Longinamus (Arthasastha), in the seventh year of his reign (465-424), regarding
the political reorganization of Palestine, and therefore in the year 457B.C.
(Ezra 7:25,7). The beginning of Ezra’s
activity is thus the beginning of the seventy year-weeks. That it was only
some years later (445) that Nehemiah could commence the building of the wall
was because serious difficulties had at first stood in the way o laying the
foundation. But nevertheless that first decree remains the beginning and “going
out” of the command to rebuild the city.
If we add to this year 457 the foretold sixty-nine year-weeks, that is
483 years, we come to the year 26/27 A.D., that is, to the exact year in which,
according to Luke 3:1,2, shortly after John the Baptist, Christ began to
proclaim the message of the heavenly kingdom. For when the Lord appeared in
public He was about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), and since Herod the Great
was living at the time of His birth (Matt.2), yet had died in the year 749 of
the city of Rome, that is in the year 4 B.C., the Lord must have been born some
four or five years before the beginning of the Christian reckoning of time, and
thus at the commencement of His public ministry, in the year 26/27, was
literally “about thirty years old.”
It is well known that Victorinus of Aquitania (died A.D. 465) and the
Roman Abbot Dionisius Exiguus (died about 556) erred by four to six years in
fixing the Christian era. Year “1” of the Christian era ought not to correspond
to the year “753” of the city of Rome, but at least to 749, if not to one or
two years earlier. The year 26 is also the “fifteenth year of Tiberius” (Luke
3:1), for Luke does not there reckon the years of reign from the sole rule of Tiberius (that is, from
the death of Augustus, 19th August, A.D. 14), but from his elevation to the joint sovereignty (shortly before the
16th January A.D. 12).
Thus here also the fulfilment has confirmed the prophecy a most
surprising manner, and because Old Testament Messianic prophecy has accurately
determined the humanity of the Redeemer as to family, place, and time, it has
at the same time proved itself t be a perfect Divine
picture.
(2) The Prophetic Anticipation
of the Deity of the Messiah
But the Deity of the Messiah is also indicated in the Old Testament,
even if only in veiled form and in pictures and riddles. First in the
comparatively clear fashion in Nathan’s prophecy: “I will be his father, and he
shall be my son” (I Chron. 17:13). Based on this David calls his son his “Lord”
(Psa. 110:1; Matt. 22:44,45); and the typical David, as if stepping down from
his throne, lays his crown at the feet of Him Who, sitting at the right hand of
Jehovah, is the real, true David (Hos. 3:5; Ezek. 37:24,25). Furthermore the
same Psalmist says: “Kiss the son, lest he be angry” and “Jehovah has said to
me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee” (Psa. 2:12,7), an expression which the New Testament applies to the
resurrection of Jesus (Acts 13:33 comp. Rom. 1:4), which was promotion from
life in the form of a servant to life in exaltation and thus His “begetting”
into the royal estate.
Isaiah also further shows pictorially the deity of
the Messiah in that he describes the “root-branch out of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1) as
“zemach (shoot) of the Lord” (Isa.
4:2), and as “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of
Peace” (Isa. 9:6). For Micah He is
“Jehovah whose going out has been from eternity unto eternity” (Mic. 5:2); for Jeremiah “Jehovah our righteousness”
(Jer. 23:5,6); and for Malachi “Jehovah whom ye seek” and “the Angel of the Covenant whom
ye desire” (Mal. 3:1).
To this appertains also the self-testimony of the eternal “Wisdom” in
Prov. 8:22-31, comp. John 1:1-3. The above sequence is
in historical order. Nathan and David about 1050 B.C., Isaiah
and Micah about 720, Jeremiah about 586, Malachi about 430.
As the person of the Messiah was viewed by
the prophet under harmonious contrast, so also His work. There it was the contrast between deity and
humanity; here between humiliation and exaltation. The “sufferings which should
come unto Christ” and “the glories thereafter”—this is the twofold content of
all their prophesying (I Pet. 1:11).
(1) Christ’s Coming
in Lowliness. In a positively sublime miniature they portrayed His first
coming, the dark background to His radian Kingly glory.
His
birth in
His
public appearance in
His
gentleness and tenderness: Isa. 42:2,3; Matt.
12:17-21.
His
consuming zeal: Psa. 69:9; John 2:17; Matt. 21:12.
His
miracles and healings: Isa. 53:4; Matt. 8:16,17.
His
entry into
The
rage of His enemies: Psa. 2:1-3; Acts 4:25-28.
His
desertion by His friends: Zech. 13:7; Matt. 26:31.
His
betrayal for thirty pieces of silver: Zech. 11:12; Matt. 26:15.
His
piercing on the cross: Psa. 22:16; John 20:25-27.
None
of His bones broken: Exod. 12:46; Psa. 34:20; John 19:31-37.
The
casting of lots for His garments: Psa. 22:18; Matt. 27:35.
Vinegar
given Him to drink: Psa. 69:21; Matt. 27:34.
His
cry of pain in distress: Psa. 22:1; Matt. 27:46.
His
cry of victory: “It is finished:” Psa. 22:31; John 19:30.
The
spear-thrust of the soldier: Zech. 12:10; John 19:34-37.
His
resurrection on the third day: Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:25-31; Hos. 6:2.
His
ascent to heaven: Psa. 110:1; Acts 2:34,35.
Through all this He is the suffering and victorious “Servant of God”
Who, as the substitute for the sinner, completes redemption, and thus fulfils
Isaiah 53, that most wonderful prophecy of the Old Testament (Acts 8:32-35).
(2) Christ’s Coming
in Glory. The second coming of
the Lord is also portrayed in the most living and splendid colours. In this the
prophets, according to the law of “prophetic perspective,” often view the first
and second comings of Christ together in one picture (Isa. 61:1,2; Luke 4:18-20).
Crowned with the golden-silver double crown (Zech. 6:11-13) of the kingship
and priesthood of Melchizedek (Psa. 110:4), the Messiah rules over His kingdom
in righteousness and sevenfold fulness of the Spirit (Isa. 11:2-4).
These are some of the glories of this golden age:
Conversion
and union of
Renewal
of the nations: Zeph. 3:9.
Peace
among the peoples: Mic.4:3,4.
Blessings
upon Nature: Isa. 11:6-8; Hos. 2:21,22.
Enhanced
brightness of sun and moon: Isa. 30:26.
Thus the Old Testament is like a star-spangled heaven at night even as
the New is a bright sunny day, “and there is no word in the New Testament which
does not look back to the Old, wherein it is announced in advance...for the New
Testament is nothing else than a revelation of the Old: just as if one had
first a closed letter and thereafter broke it open” (Luther, Kirchenpostille of 1522). It is to the
last Messianic prophect of the Old Covenant (Mal. 3:1) that the first
announcement of the birth of the New Covenant is attached (Gabriel to Zacharias,
Luke 1:5-17). For Christ is the Omega of the Old and the Alpha
of the New Testament.